Fragile Balance
by shimmerinstars
Summary: The boys have moved past Dean being a demon but their relationship is newly healed and fragile, and it seems like they can't catch a break. Not until Sam finds something left behind by the previous guest in their motel room. On their first job since Sam cured Dean.


**Disclaimer:** Not mine

**AN:** Thanks to Jedisapphire for the beta

**Summary: ** The boys have moved past Dean being a demon but their relationship is newly healed and fragile, and it seems like they can't catch a break. Not until Sam finds something left behind by the previous guest in their motel room. On their first job since Sam cured Dean.

**o0o**

Dean stirred. The uneasy sensation that something was wrong crept over him.

"Sammy?" He instinctively looked over for his brother to find his bed empty. Then quickly checking found the bathroom vacant too.

"Damn it," Dean tried not to worry. Sam was known for his walks and making an early run to pick up coffee and breakfast for them. But the sun wasn't even up yet and the impala was still parked outside and Dean just had this nagging feeling Sam wasn't doing either of those.

Dean walked up and down the front of the motel while he tried Sam's cell. Going straight to voice mail he tried a few more times with the same result.

Back inside Dean did what he knew was coming. He started to freak out. He and Sam had just moved past his being a demon and their relationship was newly healed and fragile. On top of that, this job they'd just completed. The very first since Sam had cured Dean was supposed to be a fairly simple one. But instead it went south quickly and became a particularly brutal and bloody one. Not able to save everyone, it hit both of them hard.

o0o

Dean noticed something in the room was missing that didn't belong to them. Something that had been left by the previous guest that Sam had insisted on keeping,when Dean was about to toss it. Something little and ridiculous that Dean never even considered. Yet swearing his brother was a girl at times, he had to follow this hunch and check it out.

Dean headed back outside but this time he took a walk around to the back of the motel. Which was wooded with the exception of an over grown trail marked with a rusted sign indicating _Gillie Field_ was half a mile ahead. Dean followed the winding path and it was a right before he reached a clearing when a small group of bubbles floated towards him, dancing upward when a warm gust of wind caught them.

"Son of a bitch," Dean shook his head as he continued on.

At the end of the trial the woods gave way to an open field where there was a neglected playground towards its back and to his right a couple of weather beaten picnic tables and sitting on top of one was his larger than life kid brother, blowing bubbles. Dean couldn't believe his eyes as he watched Sam dip the wand into the green plastic container of solution and gently blow sometimes successful, other times not.

Sam couldn't see him from the angle where he was standing so Dean hung back for a while. "You really are a girl Sammy," Dean said, warmly amused at the sight of his brother a grown man sitting there blowing bubbles. But Dean also found something deeply moving about this picture, as Sam tried to reclaim a part of childhood he never experienced.

Dean could see this neglected park, still contained a beauty all its own, in how peaceful it was. It was here where Sam could revisit his childhood and for the first time in as along as Dean could remember, look as content and happy, as Dean was observing right now. It was here, as the sun cast its first light across this small forgotten piece of earth, that it seemed possible to forget monsters exist, as well as the cruelty and horror of the world he and Sam had known since childhood.

"Hey," Dean said moving closer to the table his brother sat on.

"Hey," Sam said looking a little embarrassed.

"You know you could have left a note," Dean put out there softly.

"Sorry I thought I'd be back before you woke up."

"It's alright,"Dean said climbing on the table to sit beside his brother. "Besides what would you write? Be right back. Gone to blow some bubbles?"

Sam giggled.

Dean's heart warmed hearing that laugh.

"Okay, make fun of me all you want." Sam sounded resigned to it.

"I'm just teasing you Samantha," Dean said warmly, feeling surprisingly relaxed. "You know there's something about this place."

"Yeah I felt that too," Sam agreed. "Maybe we could hang around a little longer Dean, before taking off?"

"Why not?" Dean leaned back on his elbows soaking in the sunlight. It was going to be a beautiful Spring day.

"Hey you want a turn?" Sam held out the wand with all the innocence of the little boy Dean remembered.

"Sure," Dean smiled, misty eyed, knowing this was what they both needed.


End file.
